Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Alternatives to Castro's "personal" diary "Granma" are growing quickly on the island

HAVANA, Oct 17, 2010 (IPS) - In the context of ongoing conciliation between the Cuban government and the
Roman Catholic Church, the communications media of the latter are growing
quickly on this Caribbean island where the press remains under strict state
control.

All told, there are dozens of small publications -- some with regular editions,
others sporadic -- coming from parishes and different groups. Forty-six
bulletins and magazines, 12 websites and seven e-mail newsletters currently
reach more than a quarter million people, directly or indirectly, according to
estimates by Catholic Church sources.

"In this context, Havana is notable for its two magazines with highest
circulation: Palabra Nueva (New Word), the official magazine of the Havana
archdiocese, and Espacio Laical (Secular Space), of the Lay Council," said
Gustavo Andújar, vice-president of Signis, the World Catholic Association for
Communication.

Andújar spoke with IPS about the role of the religious media in Cuba.

Q: The progress that the Catholic media have made in the communications
media -- is it a result of improved relations between the Catholic Church and
the government, or is it just pushing ahead, breaking a new path?

A: In my understanding, it has gone ahead on its own. The magazines began
to multiply in the hardest years of the Special Period, in the 1990s. [The
economic crisis that began in 1991 following the fall of the Soviet Union,
which had been Cuba's main source of aid and leading trade partner.] I think
it was also a reaction of the Catholic Church to the disconcerting and
desperate situation the population was experiencing.

The publications brought a word of hope, of support, because the Church
that had been so absent from the public spaces had plenty to say. And not
necessarily a word of protest, opposition or alternative views, but rather a
different word that was at the same time one of consensus and coming
together.

Q: What role has the Catholic layperson played in the growth of this space for
communications?

A: In fact it has been a fundamentally secular effort. With strong support from
the hierarchy, priests, bishops, but the ones who have carried it forward are
laypeople -- many without professional training in communications. That gap
is being filled by classes and seminars. Furthermore, most are volunteers.

Q: What are the biggest challenges laypeople like yourself face in this field?

A: The first challenge is professionalism, to do things increasingly better. But
the biggest is to maintain this genuine dialogue that can only be achieved
from the religious identity itself, expressed clearly and calmly. There has been
growing understanding that our publications do not represent a problem, that
they are not competition for or threatening anyone.

But we have a limited reach, and we would like to extend to the whole world,
for the Cuban media to disseminate in a normal way the religious events that
are news. Events of the Church that are widely broadcast internationally are
usually ignored by the press in our country.

Q: What is it that makes the experience of the Cuban Catholic laypersons
different in this sphere?

A: The Church in Cuba was very small for a long time, with very few resources
and very limited possibilities. Those difficult years created a path of very
intense commitment to the Church. In the 1960s, our country was left with
just 200 priests and 300 nuns for seven or eight million inhabitants.

In that reality, the laypeople have served a very important function, accepted
to a great degree by the Church hierarchy. That has left a mark on us in
comparison to other Latin American churches. Ours is very participative, very
united. In addition, we have learned to expand the spaces over objective
obstacles.

Q: Do many of those obstacles still exist?

A: Often there are more self-imposed obstacles than those that really exist,
and part of our responsibility is to push back that wall a little. But we also
have to keep in mind that 40 years of structural atheism are not erased with
one stroke of the pen. Changing some articles in the Constitution does not
change the mentality of hundreds of officials who were trained and developed
all their work with the idea that the Church was something alien and
dangerous, something related with the enemy. [The 1992 constitutional
reform established, among other things, that Cuba is a secular state.]

It would be ingenuous to think that, just because the highest levels of
government have expressed an effort and willingness to dialogue, things will
automatically change. There are many mid-level officials who impose a
thousand problems, they are afraid to talk to anyone who represents the
Church.

But my experience in the field of culture, with which I have had ties all these
years through my responsibilities at the Archbishopric, is often one of
opening doors and collaboration. Dialogue is possible -- still difficult in some
sectors, but the barriers are beginning to crumble under their own weight.

Q: Are you as optimistic about the dialogue begun in May 2010 by President
Raúl Castro and the Archbishop of Havana, Cardinal Jaime Ortega?

A: Good things always come out of dialogues of this nature. In this case there
has already been a humanitarian outcome, which was the release of prisoners.
Openness and exchange have to do with a climate in which there is no room
for suspicion, fear or doubt. As we get to know each other better, the
prejudices fall away.

Q: Nevertheless, some critical stances on certain issues that appear in
Catholic publications tend to be confused with expressions of political
opposition.

A: The Church is not a political alternative or an opposition party. Its very
nature prevents it from entering the partisan fray. The Church is the mother
of all, and has no political color or programme. But it does have a gaze, a
critical view about reality from the ethical perspective, which is an inalienable
part of its mission.

It defends the person and criticizes anything that restricts a person's full
dignity. It does so with due prudence, which does not mean inhibiting itself
from doing what should be done at a given moment. When the Church criticizes something, it does not do so in a tendentious way from the political
point of view.